Shining Armor
by Lunar Cresta
Summary: raven cyborg Death and danger can make a girl really appreciate her friends. Space travel can make a guy really hungry.
1. Torture

Raven is lost and alone, who can bring her back? Go ahead, take a guess.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Shining Armor

Raven floated in the void of space. Secluded from the rest of the world she was falling to Earth slowly. Too slowly. Trapped in a malfunctioning space suit she would freeze before she hit the Earth's atmosphere. It was going to be a long, cold, drawn-out death.

She was being punished by a creature known as Torture. A sentient being who fed off the emotional outpourings of telepathically powerful humans like Raven. He was getting his kicks. She was paying the price for his pleasure.

Torture had the power to transport her anywhere so he took her to the artic to freeze, alone. It wasn't enough to even spook her, so he buried her in a coffin and threatened to let her suffocate to death in the claustrophobic confines. She seemed only more serene at that prospect, so then he took her high up and in the sky with the idea that a fear of heights or at leas a fear of falling would evoke a stream of terror. She controlled herself and enjoyed the view.

He was at his wits end when Torture decided to abandon her in space with nothing more than a defunct pressure suit and an advisory. 

"The fall probably won't kill you," he let her know. "But you will notice that you have been placed in a decaying orbit in the shadow of the Earth. I don't know how long you will last before you freeze to death or the oxygen in this decrepid suit runs out, but you will never see the sun again. Think of it. Three ways to die and you _will_ die. Alone and cold and only a two thousand mile trip down to the surface to put you out of your misery. I wouldn't want to be you."

And with that he was gone and she was alone. All alone. She looked down into the blackness of the night side of Earth. She knew a twenty-four hour geo-rotational decay would keep her in the darkness until she hit the atmosphere…that is, of course, _if_ she were lucky enough to just burn up in the atmosphere. 

It was starting to get to her.

Initially she thought she wouldn't give him the satisfaction, but the cold of the vacuum was overpowering the heating elements of the suit. The bone numbing chill was penetrating her body. The faulty air valves were cheating her of oxygen. What's more, not knowing how far up she was and whether or not she was about to start the burn of reentry chipped away at her concentration. Torture was accomplishing his goal with his insidious combination.

Raven was truly starting to crack. The strange thing was that the worst of it was not the combination of the physical threats to her well being. It was the emotional impact that was making it so unbearable. She was cold and getting colder. She was alone and getting lonelier. She was in the dark and it only seemed to be getting darker.

Miles below her, all over the night world, people were sleeping toasty warm in their beds surrounded by family and friends. No one would even know what happened to her. She wondered if they would even care. 

"There is a good chance," she thought. "that my body might miss the ground all together, and down it will sink into the dark ocean depths. Not even my dead body will ever see the light of the sun again. How ironic. Not even the warmth of morgue for me."

The shear solitude was what was weighing her down most. 

"Beast Boy, Robin, Raven, Cyborg. I know I was aloof and cold to you all. I wish any one of you…all of you were with me now. No, I wish I were with you. My friends. My friends. Please don't let me die alone. Don't let me me go…so alone. I am freezing. Please don't let it end like this."

She thought for a second a lack of oxygen was causing dementia, but Torture had somehow managed to assure that the suit would leak just enough life giving air so that she would be fully awake to experience the terror of her situation. What a jerk. She couldn't imagine anyone wanting to be so cruel. Why would anyone want to inflict such misery. "Why me, God?" she thought.

Raven lost all hope. "No one can find me. No one can rescue me. Oh, my God. I've been such a loner no one will ever even realize I'm missing. Even when they haven't seen me for a while they will assume I wanted to be by myself. With a whole wide world to search can anyone of them be ingenious enough to look for me in space. Robin? Raven? Beast Boy? Cyborg?. Robin you're so clever, but no one could figure this out. No one could deduce…could you? No. I've got to face the facts…" She trailed off in her mind. She did not want to face the facts as they were killing her.

All at once she began to tremble uncontrollably, and not just from the cold. The body numbing freeze of absolute zero was pushing Raven into hypothermic shock, and the frightening realization of her seclusion from all possible human human warmth propelled her into a quiet desperate hysteria.

"No one should be so lost, so cold, so alone. I wouldn't let any person suffer like this…if I knew about it."

Ravens reflexive shivering became pathetically violent. She was now a shuddering mass of flesh in space. She gasped a little as opposed to crying. She was dying and she knew it. 

She was scared to death.

Her last conscious thoughts were the sad wanderings of hallucination. In the periphery of her vision she imagined a streak of yellow flame piercing the darkness. 

She had only just enough strength and air to tremble out the words, "Hurry…please…". She then faded into an uncomfortable semi-consciousness, painfully reconciled to her own solitary doom.

Ascending from a low orbit trajectory, the cyber-rocket fired its retros.


	2. Home and Glorpnik soup

**

Awakenings

Raven awoke to find Starfire staring at her. Starfire was sitting in a chair next to Raven's bed staring intently. She looked like she might have been watching Raven's unconscious form for a long while. She had in fact not left the room since Cyborg had brought Raven's deeply hypothermic body back from beyond the Earth's atmosphere.

"Oh joy of joys, my friend!" Starfire's green eyes stabbed brightly into Raven's emerging consciousness.

"Joy?" Raven asked groggily

"You are awake!" said Starfire barely able to contain her excitement.

"I know."

Raven sat up and saw that she was indeed awake in her own room in the Titan Tower. She did not know how she got there, but it felt wonderful to be back home. Safe.

"Oh my god. I was in space," Raven recollected.

"Uh-huhhh." Starfire nodded her head enthusiastically.

"It was soooo cold and I was.I was.Hey. I was in space. I mean like.way up there kind of space. How did I get back here?" Raven asked.

"You've been most, most fortunate, Raven," Starfire began as if she had been axiously awaiting to tell the story. "We did not know where you were. We thought you had gone away. Cyborg, however, was able to track you. He said you were travelling at thousand miles per hour. 'Gee,' I said. 'Is that not awfully fast?' and he said, 'Faster than she can levitate, Starfire'" Starfire's attempt to imitate Cyborg's deeper voice was less than convincing.

"Cyborg tracked me?"

"Indeed he did. He said that the last time he had the laundry chore he installed an emergency transponder in each of our uniforms."

"Sneaky." Raven lay back. She listened intently to the story and for the time Starfire's overexuberance was not annoying her.

"Yes. Most clever" Starfire agreed. "He said you were travelling too fast and too long to be in an ordinary aircraft. I was then the one who suggested that your strange tracking signal had the aura of space flight about it. Robin said that Cyborg's tracking equipment must be malfunctioning, and Beast Boy did not understand what was happening. That's when Cyborg stood up and said," Starfire stood on her chair and pointed her finger at the ceiling in a heroic pose that befitted some momentus declaration. ".'I shall retrieve her in the Cyber-Rocket!'"

"The Cyber-who?"

"The Cyber-Rocket!" Starfire repeated with the same flourish as the first time she shouted it.

"We have a Cyber-Rocket?" This was all sounding highly improbable to Raven, but it was making for an interesting story.

"That's exactly what Robin said!" Starfire seemed genuinely impressed by the coincidence. ""We have a Cyber-Rocket?' And it seems that indeed we do. All this time beneath the tower. An old Titan missile with a solid booster. Cyborg salvaged it from an Air Force scrapyard. He described this as a special project."

"Yeah. Well, a thermo-nuclear projectile under your residence is bit of a 'special project,'" Raven was not thrilled by this revellation.

"Oh, no. No atomic boom," Starfire advised. ".Just high explosives. I mean rocket fuel. I mean I can assure you that when it comes to space flight this is much safer than liquid propellant."

"Great."

"Cyborg had this fabulous dream to be the first teen in space, but of course I beat him and you by a long shot. It was a fabulous, fabulous endeavor anyhow, and it is a good thing he did because we were very concerned about how to get you back. Robin said that perhaps you were safe and that we should wait, but Cyborg seemed to feel that you were in imminent danger. You did not have telepathic contact with him, did you, Raven?"

"No." Raven remembered sort of crying out mentally, but she doubted there was anyway for someone could have detected this. "At least I don't think so."

"It was very scary. I was most concerned. Cyborg's engineering skills are impeccable but he had not completed the passenger capsule. It was very unsafe but he said he had to try. He said he could not risk harm coming to you. He knew he could die..."

"Could die?" Raven sat bolt upright. "Didn't he have a space suit?"

"Hmm." Starfire searched her mind for the correct words. "Not exactly a proper space suit, no. It did have a hose attached to some air. I think it was for the water."

"A deep sea diving suit?. That's all?" Her exposure to the hostile environment of space made Raven all too aware that this was inadequate protection from the penetrating cold.

"Do not be worried about your Cyborg in shining armor," Starfire reassured. " He has come through it all safely just like you. Although he was quite frozen and nearly drained of all power when you two splashed down in the waters mere meters away from the tower, he has recovered amazingly well. He has eaten of my recuperative Glorpnik soup and is recharging even now as he plays Gamestation with Beast Boy."

"Wow. That's incredible." Raven hugged her knees to her chest and in that moment noticed the sleepwear she was attired in. "Um, Starfire?"

"Yes, Raven?"

"Can you tell me something?"

"Most certainly of course, Raven."

"Why am I wearing pink pajamas with feet in them and with what appears to be a sort of dancing rabbits pattern?"

"Those are my favorite pajamas," Starfire clasped her hands together with glee. "They are woven from Thalaxian biothermal feedback fibers. They can maintain your body temperature no matter how cold you have become, and you were not unlike being just a Raven popsicle. I put them on you as soon as we got you back inside. I've been waitng for you to recover ever since."

"You have?" Raven asked.

"Of course. Though the pajamas would bring your temperature back up, you were in and out of delirous consciousness. 'A typical result of hypthermic shock,' so Robin said. I fed you some Glorpnik soup and now.you are awake!"

"That explains the taste in my mouth," Raven said dryly. "What's glorpnik soup made from?"

"Glorp. Delicious is it not?" Starfire looked at Raven expectantly.

Raven had another first when she hugged Starfire for the first time. "It's disgusting. But, thank you. Thank you for your care.Starfire."

Starfire sighed contentedly.

"But since you've been watching me all night I am going to put you to bed now."

Raven escorted Starfire to her own room and tucked her in. Starfire fell fast asleep for she was truly tired.

Raven then walked into the living room where Cyborg and Beast Boy were indeed playing Gamestation. A long power cord extended from Cyborg's side into an outlet in the wall. Being thoroughly engrossed in a game of Battlin' Warbots, neither of them noticed her padded foot entrance into the room. She approached the long u-shaped couch from the rear and then stepped over its back settling herself down between the two teen superheroes.

"Awww. What are you doing?" Raven had accidentally jostled Beast Boy's arms as she sat down causing him to miss a block that allowed Cyborg's computer rendered fighting machine to rip off the leg of the Warbot Beast Boy was playing. Beast Boy complained vociferously. "Ah no fair! She bumped me! That doesn't count! We gotta play that over! Replay!"

Cyborg looked over with surprise to see Raven up and about. 

"Booyah! It was inevitable anyway. Look who's up. How's our favorite astronaut, huh? You all thawed out? Ya didn't gag to death on Starfire's splorgnik soup? How ya feelin'?"

"Dude, what the hell are you wearing?" Beast Boy enquired. "Pink bunny-wunnies. And they are hippity-hoppity dancing. That's so cutesy-wutesy. And look they got feety-weeties." Beast Boy rolled with laughter on the couch.

"Don't mind him," Cyborg advised. "He's just consoling himself after his sixteenth loss in a row and his pathetic inability to beat me at this game. How are you doing?"

Raven truly didn't mind at this point. She was just glad to be on a couch next to her two good friends. 

"I'm fine," Raven said "How is _my _favorite astronaut?"

"Not really an astronaut. Never made an orbit, just a high trajectory maneuver. It doesn't count."

"It counts with me." Raven raised her face up to his and kissed him on the cheek.

"Are you two gonna do something gross on this couch?" Beast Boy sat back up and reset the gamestation.

"Not with you here I guess," said Cyborg, smiling. 

Raven stayed awake for awhile as Cyborg and Beast Boy played round after another round of Batttlin' Warbots. Soon though the exhaustion of her ordeal made her drowsy again. She unconsciously started leaning more and more on Cyborg as she slipped again into sleep. Cyborg did not complain or try to rouse her to go to bed. She seemed so content. He merely just used the arm Raven was resting on less and less. He didn't even seem to care as this handicap allowed Beast Boy to continually gain the advantage and eventually disembowel Cyborg's Warbot with each round. 

After a while, being tired out from the rigors of space flight, Cyborg also passed out in the middle of the Gamestation tournament. Beast Boy took this opportunity to beat his dozing opponent repeatedly. After awhile, when he had amassed an impressive string of victories, Beast Boy assured that the record of the streak was recorded for posterity in the machine memory and then stumbled into his own bedroom.

Later in the glow of the theatre screen television Robin came out of his room and found Cyborg, head back and snoring, with Raven curled up under his arm. Robin got a spare blanket out of the linen closet, covered them both up and went back to bed.

**


	3. Waffles and Affection

**Shining Armor **

**Chapter 3 - Waffles and Affection **

In the kitchen, Raven floated as gracefully as she could, trying to efficiently make breakfast. She had to concentrate on her task because cooking was hardly her specialty, but this was important to her. It wasn't going particularly smoothly, but the young sorceress was absolutely determined to get it done. This meal, however, had to be a surprise. She didn't want to be caught in the act. She wanted to surprise him. She wanted to give him something. She didn't know what she was doing but she had to do something. She had to say thank you. She had to show it, even if she could never say it. Say how much she appreciated, how grateful she was, how much she wanted to… The room shuddered slightly, the lights flickered, the contents of the cabinets rattled as the cupboards shook.

"Stop it" she told herself as she looked around, realizing she had allowed herself to 'feel' some of what she was thinking. The room settled. Nothing exploded. "I have to keep it suppressed", she continued to herself. "Just fix the darn waffles and then you'll be even. It'll be over." She gave herself this reasoning, but she wasn't completely convinced. She sighed audibly.

Why am I feeling this way? she mentally asked herself. I don't have to pay him back. He's saved my life many times before, just as I have saved his. Why is this any different? It's all apart of what we do. I can't go feeling anything special about this one time.

Hex! I can't go on feeling _anything_, she corrected herself. This…particular feeling is so hard to control. It _is_ just gratefulness…isn't it? He's my friend and I am really just grateful that he risked his life…his very mortal life to save mine.

To come all the way out into space just to save me, she repeated to herself. Yes it was brave of him, but that's all it was. Just something you do for a friend. And that is what _I_ am doing. I am just saying thank you to a friend. It's nothing more. Yes, that is it. He is just my big, good friend…who rescued me…as friends do.

Raven's train of thought drifted to how she had fallen asleep under his arm on the couch and to how safe and secure she had felt, and to how surprisingly comfortable it was with her head on his chest. How she felt so protected and so… The mechanical voice of the Titan Tower's central computer interrupted her reverie.

"Abnormal temperature rise detected", the computer calmly droned. "Source: kitchen galley. Emergency ventilation procedure commencing." With that, several mechanical vents and windows opened, fans whirred to life, and the air conditioning cut-on going full blast."

"Ahh…great," groaned raven. She closed her eyes and neutralized her emotions. She thought of cool nothingness as she incanted, "Azrath, Metrion, Zinthos." The room temperature stabilized.

Raven moved to stir the waffle batter but found she could not move the spoon. Her outburst of heat had cooked the waffles right in the bowl.

"Drat!" she said in disgust. "Raven, you have to get in control of yourself, girl. Do this, and then we can forget about him…I mean forget about this. I will have this silly compulsion to show my gratitude out of my system and I can get back to being my normal, calm, placid, in-control self again." Raven began to assemble the ingredients again.

If any of the other Teen Titans had felt the sharp spike and drop in temperature or had heard the frustrated groans and slight curses of Raven's cooking efforts emanating from the kitchen the only one to investigate that early morning was Starfire. Being the most inquisitive of the Teen Titans she was giddily curious to see what was going on. She carefully crept down the hallway and peeked around the corner.

"Raven! Are you cooking?" Starfire half shouted. Raven had been concentrating so hard on mixing the batter while keeping her emotions in check that she was completely caught of guard by the young Tamaranian's loud inquiry. She half jumped out of her skin. The batter completely jumped out of the bowl. It dumped itself everywhere, including over Raven's head and face.

"No, I'm trying on my new batter outfit. Go back to bed Starfire."

"I am sorry, friend Raven," Starfire apologized. "I did not mean to startle you."

"It's okay, Starfire," Raven calmly replied. "I shouldn't have been trying this anyway. It'll never work."

"What are you making?" Starfire looked around as she helped clean off her friend. "Waffles? It is interesting that you wish to do that. Are you very hungry so early in the morning?"

"They weren't for me," Raven advised. "They were for Cyborg. To say 'thank you'"

"Oh?" Starfire seemed intrigued. "Let me help you."

"No thanks," declined Raven. "I think I'll just forget about it."

"Please let me help. You seem a little unsettled still. We can do this together." Starfire had a beaming smile on her face and seemed quite enthusiastic. "I once made waffles for friend Cyborg too. He said they were great."

Raven was surprised. Not only to hear that Starfire had fixed Cyborg something, but that he had actually liked it. Well, they were friends and if she could fix waffles for Cyborg then she could too. What more, she wondered if Starfire's waffles were actually any good. She had so far had not much luck making food appealing to her fellow Titans. Maybe Cyborg was just being polite. I can still be the first to make him some good waffles.

"Hmm…" Raven pondered for a moment. "I don't know, Starfire. I really don't want to add any Tamaranian glorpnik to it or anything. These are special Belgian waffles I am making from scratch with whipped cream and strawberries. See?"

Starfire examined the recipe book that Raven was using as her guide. After a few minutes perusing the instructions she put her fore finger to her chin and said, "Okay, I think I understand, and I think I can help you."

Raven was reluctant to involve Starfire, but it was getting late and Cyborg would be up soon. Also, there was the mess.

"Okay," Raven relented. "But first let's clean this stuff up a bit so we will have less to do when we are finished."

"Wonderful, friend Raven!" Starfire clapped her hands joyfully. "Together we will make the best waffles…"

"Err…Starfire?" Raven cautioned. "This is supposed to be a surprise. Kinda keep it down, okay?"

"Oh. A surprise," Starfire whispered conspiratorially. "I will be most secret then."

"Yeah. Be most secret, Starfire."

After much fervent work and effort the batter, whipped cream, and strawberries were ready. They waited until they heard Cyborg in the shower, and when he exited they poured the batter into the waffle iron. Everything was ready when he exited his room.

"Surprise breakfast, Cyborg!" Starfire shouted wildly at him as he approached the kitchen area. Starfire hadn't noticed that had a jacket and jeans and ball cap on plus a back pack. He was clearly intending to skip breakfast and was headed out. Raven noticed.

"What? Huh? What?" was all the biggest Titan could say at this unexpected repast lain out before him.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Star," he managed to say when he realized what was going on. "I've got classes today at Jump City U. and I am running a little behind." He was sincerely apologetic. If he had known he would have gotten up earlier.

"But Raven has made this especially _for_ you." Starfire said tugging on his arm. "She has made the special waffles of Belgian with the powdery sugar, the cream that has been whipped and the freshest strawberries."

"She did?" asked Cyborg as he held a truly magnificent, perfectly formed, large waffle on a plate with all the toppings Starfire had described. He could smell the toasted goodness. "Wow."

"_We_ did," Raven corrected from over near the sink where she was calmly washing dishes. "It's no big deal."

Cyborg was however already sampling a piece of the waffle with a fork Starfire had proffered him.

"Ummmm…" Cyborg made a throaty yummy sound. "Oh yeah! This is good, girl!"

Raven thought he might have been making fun and turned around to glower at him, but he had a sincere look of ecstacy on his face and Raven had a hard time believing that he was being duplicitous. She watched as he took the remaining waffle and folded it in half.

"There's syrup on the table," Raven commented levelly.

"Doesn't need it," Cyborg replied as he stuffed half the waffle in his face. He chewed he swallowed and then he downed the other half.

Christ! That boy can eat, Raven laughed to herself. And what a huge mouth.

"Ahhhh….man that was good," Cyborg complimented as he wiped his mouth with a cloth napkin from the table. "Ain't nothing quite like a Belgian waffle and that one was heaven."

He approached her so fast that he completely caught her off guard. He put his right hand on her upper arm and bent down to kiss her on the top of her head, but she looked up at the last moment and he wound up kissing her on her forehead….on her red gemstone…the one on her forehead….the one that her intensified her chakra. Raven swooned.

Cyborg's waffle iron exploded.

"Hey!" Cyborg turned around to see the waffle iron in smoking pieces. Raven looked around him to se what she had done.

"Oh my gosh, Cyborg," Raven cried. "I'm so sorry."

"Hey, it's no problem, Rae," said Cyborg smiling. He opened up a bottom cupboard revealling more new waffle irons of different manufactures. "I have plenty of spares!"

Out of relief and partially out of titillated excitement Raven laughed out loud. Cyborg put his hand behind his head and beamed unabashedly.

"I guess I'm kind of addicted."

He swung on his backpack and headed for the doorway.

"Hey, thanks again, Rae. I'll see you after classes, okay?" He left the living area and as he zipped down the long stairway next to the elevator Rave could hear him patting his tummy and saying, "Ummmm…good waffles!"

"I'll see you…" Raven repeated wistfully. She placed her hand on her forehead where he had kissed it. She could still smell his cologne. She closed her eyes for just a second. She was only a little startled when Starfire addressed her.

"We surprised friend Cyborg well, did we not?" Starfire smiled at Raven with huge green eyes glowing with accomplishment.

"Yes," said Raven returning her smile gratefully. "Thanks. Thank you, Starfire. I couldn't have done it without you."

"Oh, you are most welcome, friend Raven," replied Starfire while picking up Cyborg's empty plate and taking it to the sink. "It is peculiar though. He never kisses me when I make him waffles. I wonder what it is that I have done wrong, or what it is that you do right?"

Raven however was not listening to her as she was looking out one of the huge bay windows, down at the ground where the T-Car was emerging from the garage. As she watched Cyborg drive into the tunnel that lead to Jump City she placed her hand gently on the window and her breath began to fog up the glass. She remembered his patented Cyborg smile as he finished that waffle and the sensation of his lips touching her ajna chakra. A slow explosion of warmth started at the center of her forehead and spread throughout her entire head. It ran down the full of her neck and into her chest where it expanded more. She started to shiver as it cascaded down her spine. Before it got any farther she realized it was not just her shaking it was the entire room…maybe the entire tower.

Raven quickly got a grip on herself. She turned around to see Starfire clutching the lunch counter.

"Is it quake season in Jump City Raven?" Starfire asked innocently.

Raven could only blush with embarrassment as she said, "I think I had better go meditate for a while."

With that she levitated up to the ceiling and dissolved through to the roof.

**- End Chapt. 3**


End file.
